Ashdoc's movie review---Tamasha

This is a film that will appeal to only a niche audience---those denizens of the world who are called by ordinary normal folk as 'filmy' people , at least in India . These are the people who could have done normal 9 to 5 office jobs and earn't regular money , but chose not to . Instead , they chose to follow their dreams and some of them remained strugglers---but they remained steadfast to their goal of being an artist . One of them ( Bollywood actor Anupam Kher ) was once asked what would he have been if he had not got any work as an actor , and he said ''I would have been an actor without work !! '' . It is as simple as that....

In this film director Imtiaz Ali asks us to follow our dreams , and not just remain a cog in a money making machine . He mocks those people who dance on their bosses' tune to earn their daily bread as nothing but robots , and says that their every movement is robotic . Needless to say , his ideas may not appeal to many of us , but he is a dream merchant---the industry he is a part of ( the film industry ) gives him the licence known as cinematic liberty....

So the hero ( Ranbir Kapoor ) grows up watching plays showing epic romances and listening to epic stories told by a story teller....and somewhere in him there is an actor yearning to play a part in them on stage , but his parents and upbringing force him to take up a boring routine job after a routine education . But one day on a vacation to the island of Corsica he meets a like minded person ( Deepika Padukone ) who is not only a beautiful woman but also a free spirit .

They two agree to spend the vacation together without telling each other their real names . So he becomes 'Don'---a gangster from a movie...and she becomes 'Mona darling'---the gangster's moll . And they have a whale of a time together . frolicking and dancing and enacting filmy scenes mouthing filmy dialogues among the friendly people of the island . When he says in the filmy style of erstwhile Bollywood actor Dev Anand that the 'valley of her beauty ( cleavage ) is exposed' she exposes it more by removing her outer clothes rather than cover her modesty . And when he changes his role from 'Don' to agent of interpol , she asks outrageously if the interpol agent has a pole !! They drink the fresh water from streams on the island by putting their mouth in the flowing streams and break into parties and make friends . But at the end of the vacation it is time to kiss and say goodbye....

But back in India Deepika feels that she has found her soulmate and her lifemate in Ranbir , and she would never find anyone like him again....She comes searching for him to a cafe he had mentioned he frequents and finally finds him....
And as they begin to date again , he finally proposes to her in front of his assembled friends....
But Deepika refuses !! She has found that back in India Ranbir is nothing but a money earning robot , a cog in a bread earning machine...a person who does a boring job in a boring office....a person who has lost his vitality in front of his boss and parents and his superiors....a person who takes time to switch off his mobile phone so that calls from his office would not disturb them before becoming physically intimate , rather than a passionate lover....

But Deepika refuses to give up on Ranbir however , for she feels that the Ranbir she met on Corsica was the real Ranbir....and the Ranbir she met in India is just playing the part meant to keep his parents and superiors happy....
She urges him to discover his real self and become an artist again , even if that means giving up on his dreams of climbing up on the corporate ladder.....and thus she sets him on a journey of self discovery....

So where will the journey of self discovery end ? Is Deepika's version of Ranbir his real self ? And will the two live life together ?? Watch the movie for the answer , even though the answer is an all to predictable one....

The first half of the movie is interesting , with Ranbir showing his acting skills amid the gorgeous photography of Corsica ( the streams are so crystal clear and the view of the sun from the rocky coastline is stunning ) and Deepika looking divine as usual....the second half is less interesting and slower paced but the climax is rousing . What I liked was the fact that the director stayed true to the message of the film throughout....Whether that message should be liked or heeded by us is another matter altogether.....after all , not all people are filmy and others may prefer normal humdrum lives...to each his own....

Why I found the film to be decent ?? Maybe somewhere inside me resides a filmy too...after all , I write all these film reviews...